Tarot Practice Installment II

Most people recommend that a beginner at tarot read a card a day about what to expect for the day. This is a good idea. However, I personally believe writing down a journal of definitions out of books once you have written down your impressions is a good exercise before or during the single card readings.

Using memory techniques to learn the cards would be wise. One such technique is to make the meanings into funny rhymes. I suggest the book Super Memory Super Student by Harry Lorayne to all my college friends, but it is beneficial for all learning situations. It’s a quick read and saves massive amounts of time studying. I got through a college psychology class with it for most the term with only an hour study time for midterms and had an A. There was no homework for the course only five midterms and a final. Finally my health problems that occupied me too much to study got to be too much, and I still had to drop the course. So save yourself possibly years of studying tarot to be thoroughly versed in meanings.

For a beginning reader try using only the upright meanings. As you get better you can and in my opinion should reverse the cards in most decks. I and others I know have found that if there are no given reversed (inverted image) card meanings given for a particular deck the cards will not make much sense with the cards reversed. I have found a daily tarot reading with many cards like five to ten to be a good exercise.

As you get better you can put the cards down for a long time and still be able to read. It did took me a couple years to be able to pick up pretty much where I left off when I have taken an accidental hiatus. Now it only takes a few readings to get back in the swing of things. It is best to avoid hiatuses, but alas sometimes I have felt no need to read. Remember especially if you fall off the daily practice wagon and get rusty Tarot is a lifelong study and shouldn’t be something one expects to master quickly.

Remember too the journal does not do near as much good unless you review it. I would suggest each reading be reviewed at least at first from the one day mark, the one week mark, and the once a month mark for six months to a year. I have had readings take years to pan out. I tend to think of things in the long term so my readings tend to cover automatically one year of events. I do suggest you put a time frame down for your tarot readings, and avoid “Ever” as a qualifier.

The most important exercise you can do for actually reading the cards is asking the right question. Here is my personal tip of my own discovery: If you can’t think what to ask you can always think “What am I afraid of hearing?” Then think “What do I hope to hear?” that will lead you to your question, which should be open ended, just by looking at what question would require your cards to answer both questions. Yes and no questions cheat you and eventually others as you improve enough to read for them.

How do so many readers claim that it is impossible to read for oneself? Most of us are particularly dishonest with ourselves because we are attached to an answer; the ticket to reading for yourself is detachment. When I was learning to read for myself I learned that if I said to myself before I shuffled and also before interpreting “Check your optimism and your pessimism at the door” I could detach enough to read accurately. Also disregard what you “know” about the situation. What you “know” is often wrong.

Remember the value of intuition is often greater than that of logic and it can be trained and strengthened.

On Developing a Tarot Practice Installment I

I’ve been reading for almost 13 years now and fairly seriously for 11 while I do tend to take long hiatuses. I am a strong reader but wonder how it would be if I had never had periods where I just felt no need to read. The key thing Is practice. It took me a full year of serious reading before I had attained accuracy reading for others and many years before I could read for myself. Now I don’t always need the cards to give an in depth reading as due to reading tarot I am in general much more psychic.

Beginner or “Woo hoo I just bought a new deck!” exercises

Go through the deck and look at one card at a time. What do you see first? Note the color and symbol. How do you feel about each card? Write down your interpretations. Another good way to know each card is to scan each card from top left to bottom right in rows left to right, then right to left. Once you are done with that do it in reverse and in different directions. Notice all the symbolism and small details you missed at first glance.

Save this and all tarot notes to look at later and even years later.

One of the best exercises for just getting to know your deck is going through and shuffling the cards and then arrange them in proper order as fast as you can doing this time and again until you are satisfied with your speed. This will take a quite a few times as there are 78 cards in most decks. This is a more important and helpful exercise than many would assume. There is great benefit in being able to quickly recognize your cards. One thing being the less time spent looking at the card processing what card it is mentally opens channels of intuition and enables clearer thoughts. The more you know the deck the faster the channels will open up, and it will let you in on the ability to tap further into that excellent first impression intuition.

Always sleep with a new deck beneath your pillow for at least one week. To prevent damage to the box or deck itself I suggest a tarot bag or if you want it wrapped in cloth in a box for the under the pillow time take a clean sock it’s better if only you have worn it and put the deck down in the toe being careful not to bend the cards. This keeps the cards together and unbent by that means. Also it prevents you having to look under the bed for cards or having a broken down manufactures box. Keeping the deck with you at all times for the first week at minimum is also wise. This gives the cards time to know you and you to know them. Also inspires you to get them out periodically during the day at breaks.

A Reader's Manifesto of Ethical Concerns

It’s been over twelve years now since I picked up the cards the spring before I turned fifteen. I have practiced a lot though often inconsistently. I have done many readings for other’s and myself. People always tell me I am among the best readers they have had work the magic of interpreting those beautiful mysteries conveyed through picture cards. I have been having numerous financial troubles for years, and they just compounded by moving, a necessary move. I decided that I must at last be a hard ass about charging.

Thing is you have to be a hard ass because people never want to pay for tarot if they can help it. They want the benefit of a skill only a few have honed to any real level, and they want fun from the novelty as well as life changing advice. They don’t want to spend the years of countless hours with false readings as you learn the nuances of the cards to the extent it takes to read for oneself. To learn to be skilled with the cards to the deepest levels is in ways harder than many degree programs and can take longer.

It’s not merely learning to recite by memory interpretations or even story telling with symbol cards. It is fundamentally a process of deep spiritual purification. You have to let go of bias and projections that we all tend to harbor by nature. You have to learn to open your mind and let truth come in. Bear in mind that, people will lie to a reader. Some test you with their lies and some are afraid to be honest with you, thinking they will go undetected. If they do go undiscovered the reader has failed. You must know that the seeker may lie to you directly or indirectly via lying to themselves or be in the position of having been deceived themselves. You must not fall in the trap of using logic. Logic alone will fail you in readings oftener than not.

The energies of the cards may also make you too open to other energies in time. You may find yourself growing to empathic and too washed out or wishy-washy. These effects must be countered. There is great self control necessary in learning to read cards. It is not a mere novelty act. It is true power when treated with the respect that soothsaying deserves. It is not a game and it is not to be treated as a parlor trick. It is not to predict even a predetermined fate but rather to shape the fate you are best suited for. It is a tool of transformation and its gift is thought. Its gift of analysis can change ones state of mind and with that your life.

I have had some interest in my readings already. I am sure that with time I will have substantial income from this endeavor. Mind you substantial is in the mind of the beholder, but for me the potential is clearly there.

I have been reading for money for less than a month and already ethics has come into play. Never let the issue of ethics be downplayed in psychic pursuits. Be ever mindful of virtues of truth, love and loyalty. You must have honesty for everyone who you take on for a client even if there is just one reading to be done. You must do so even if you dislike the querent. There are very few cases where dishonesty is remotely acceptable but alas there are possible scenarios and then let love be thy guide. Don’t mistake love for coddling the querent and don’t mistake love as something that has to be given to specific people rather than simply respecting life. Love all those in which you come in contact especially when delving into the psychic.

Horrible things await those who delve in too deep and too dark. Depth in light will make you powerful, wise, and noble. Depth in darkness steals the spirit from your soul and lets it seem as though it were sold slowly. It can’t be bought back. It can be won back through difficult change and returning to the light. However, many get lost in the dark.

Loyalty comes into play when you show respect to not pry into things that are neither your concern nor the seeker’s. You know the certain kinds of spying. I used to spy much with tarot and would always get scolded with the 7 of swords which has as one of its meanings certain types of spying. It was no matter to me who my love was with or what his thoughts were. The dance we did was painful but it took real growth for tarot to stop being detrimental to my psyche. The ever so common heartbroken person who just can’t let go so asks the tarot the same question again, again often right in a row is familiar to every reader that has publicly announced perhaps too loudly that yes I read. They will go from reader to reader to quench their thirst of a glimpse of a future they desire, never seeing the more they chase it the faster that possibility flees them. Such people must be made to obey limits on readings. Perhaps therapy of one sort or another is in order. It is however a very common affliction amongst the soft hearted and sentimental when they turn to the psychic for answers.

Regret and craving for someone to fill that place that is empty inside and a refusal to let go of a failed promise is the cause of such states of mine. The promise may not have been broken but both parties have failed. It is best to accept our role and change that role in the future. We could ask the tarot, “What lesson do I most need to learn from this situation?” Many questions may be helpful but prying into the lives of others who felt the need, for whatever reason, to distance themselves from the seeker is not to be allowed nor is it ever justified. If for no other reason it harms the mind of the seeker to yearn and grasp and reach to such an extent.

One must show loyalty to all life and you will find many more will show loyalty you when they see you showed it to them first. Most dogs don’t bite when left un-harassed. That loyalty includes not being a psychic voyeur or a stalker of the unseen realms. Those pursuits don’t further anyone. Most morals suit well those who hold them. So great is the issue of ethics in reading for ourselves and others that I have already had my metal tested.

I desperately need funds and a couple I know are having marital issues, both have come to me for readings. Do I read for one and not both? I chose to accept both offers of payment. I will, however, not convey knowledge of one session in the other and I will not play one for the other. I will spy on neither. If either party becomes immoral in requests they will be denied all further readings if it passes beyond the territory of a simple warning. I will not be repetitive in my warnings. I lay down the law for I am the one who will do the looking and seeing. It is also I who has detachment. That makes me in many ways most karmatically liable. I could almost dismiss them prying but my allowing it, that is dirty.